Universal Records

Posted:
in General Discussion edited January 2014
Universal says every CD they release will be copy-protected by mid 2002.



Although these CDs will play in some PCs, they will not play in Macs, or in DVD players, and PC users cannot rip them to MP3 or AIFF. Not sure if you can copy digitally to MD.



Forunately, they have about the worst catalog

I've seen for a "major" label, so I'm unlikely to be affected.



A boycott will not work. Nor will returning CDs that we try and find they don't work. Unversal expects 1% returns, and has factored this into their decision.



I suggest the following plan of action:



Every one of us should, whether we want the CD or not, buy these CDs, open them up and return them to the store as defective. We could even be evil and take a needle and make a tiny, undetectable scratch in the tracking info at the beginning of the disc (innermost data, from the top of the CD) so they cannot simply rewrap the CD and reship (without it being returned again). If we can force the defect rate above 3% I believe Universal will be forced to reverse their decision.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 12




    I give haX0rs 1 month to find a crack to reading them.
  • Reply 2 of 12
    [quote]Originally posted by tonton:

    <strong>Universal says every CD they release will be copy-protected by mid 2002.



    Although these CDs will play in some PCs, they will not play in Macs, or in DVD players, and PC users cannot rip them to MP3 or AIFF. Not sure if you can copy digitally to MD.



    Forunately, they have about the worst catalog

    I've seen for a "major" label, so I'm unlikely to be affected.



    A boycott will not work. Nor will returning CDs that we try and find they don't work. Unversal expects 1% returns, and has factored this into their decision.



    I suggest the following plan of action:



    Every one of us should, whether we want the CD or not, buy these CDs, open them up and return them to the store as defective. We could even be evil and take a needle and make a tiny, undetectable scratch in the tracking info at the beginning of the disc (innermost data, from the top of the CD) so they cannot simply rewrap the CD and reship (without it being returned again). If we can force the defect rate above 3% I believe Universal will be forced to reverse their decision.</strong><hr></blockquote>





    NAHHH YO!



    APPLE SHOOD DO A DEAL WIT DA BIG 5 AND HAV THEM ALOW SHIT TA BE PLAID IN ITUNES AND COPIED TO IPOD WILE STIL NOT HAVIN IT ILEGALY SHARED.



    -------------------------------

    FUBUiMac - LIKE a BITCH SMACK



    [ 12-18-2001: Message edited by: FUBUiMac ]</p>
  • Reply 3 of 12
    [quote]Originally posted by FUBUiMac:

    <strong>





    NAHHH YO!



    APPLE SHOOD DO A DEAL WIT DA BIG 5 AND HAV THEM ALOW SHIT TA BE PLAID IN ITUNES AND COPIED TO IPOD WILE STIL NOT HAVIN IT ILEGALY SHARED.</strong><hr></blockquote>



    English? Hello?
  • Reply 4 of 12
    imacfpimacfp Posts: 750member
    I think Apple will be forced into copy protection. If this keeps going iTunes and iPod will be useless .





    Chris
  • Reply 5 of 12




    That's fucking pathetic.



    As dumb as it may sound, I'll probably do just what tonton said and will encourage all my friends to do so also.
  • Reply 6 of 12
    torifiletorifile Posts: 4,024member
    I will definitely not buy any cds that I can't rip. That's the reason I got my iPod. The good thing is, since OS X is UNIX, a little perl script to crack the protection will be available to us soon after, if not before, these cds hit the market.
  • Reply 7 of 12
    I don't think the protection is that easy to 'crack' torifile.



    If I understand the process correctly, the manufacturers are inserting garbage data that regular audio CD players will skip over because they (fairly newer ones, that is) have been designed to "smooth over" minor scratches and glitches in audio CDs . CD-ROM drives in computers, however, like to be able to read and verify every bit of data and when they hit these garbage bits, they simply choke. The Mac should not even mount the CD and that is where a major roadblock is.



    I think I've actually accidentally made CDs like this. I had some crap-o Office Depot CD-R's that couldn't use for data disks because they produced too many errors. I could, however, create audio CD's that would play in my car. Those same CD's would not play in my Mac because they had bad data in them.



    [ 12-19-2001: Message edited by: starfleetX ]</p>
  • Reply 8 of 12
    All this really means is that CD-ROM makers are going to have to start shipping with updated firmware to allow audio CDs with defects to mount. The error correction can happen in software. There's always the hardware correction route, as in consumer CD players, but I suppose there's no reason to raise the price of the device unneccesarily if not all users wish to play audio CDs. The trade-off comes at the expense of CPU time for the correction. I'm quite confident research is already in progress -- if not completed -- regarding this issue.



    -- ShadyG
  • Reply 9 of 12
    torifiletorifile Posts: 4,024member
    [quote]Originally posted by starfleetX:

    <strong>I don't think the protection is that easy to 'crack' torifile.



    If I understand the process correctly, the manufacturers are inserting garbage data that regular audio CD players will skip over because they (fairly newer ones, that is) have been designed to "smooth over" minor scratches and glitches in audio CDs . CD-ROM drives in computers, however, like to be able to read and verify every bit of data and when they hit these garbage bits, they simply choke. The Mac should not even mount the CD and that is where a major roadblock is.



    I think I've actually accidentally made CDs like this. I had some crap-o Office Depot CD-R's that couldn't use for data disks because they produced too many errors. I could, however, create audio CD's that would play in my car. Those same CD's would not play in my Mac because they had bad data in them.



    [ 12-19-2001: Message edited by: starfleetX ]</strong><hr></blockquote>



    starfleet,

    I was at my local Border's perusing the computer magazines and I ran across the latest issue of 2600 and they published a perl script that will allow the computer not to choke on the bad data. Something to the effect of 'if there is bad data, skip it and move on' so that the cd could mount. I'm sure the issue is still in the stores, so you can look through it and see if that's what you're referring to. I dunno, I just don't think that there is anything that can be done to prevent users from ripping cds. Of course, I could be wrong (it's happened before) and I'll just not buy anything from universal.
  • Reply 10 of 12
    [quote]Originally posted by torifile:

    <strong> I was at my local Border's perusing the computer magazines and I ran across the latest issue of 2600 and they published a perl script that will allow the computer not to choke on the bad data. Something to the effect of 'if there is bad data, skip it and move on' so that the cd could mount.</strong><hr></blockquote>

    Ah! Well, then color me surprised.



    My mistake...
  • Reply 11 of 12
    imacfpimacfp Posts: 750member
    What happens when every CD is protected? Apple might have to get involved with copy protection too. If they don't half their Digital Hub will be shot to hell.



    Chris
  • Reply 12 of 12
    xmogerxmoger Posts: 242member
    Hey everybody, Universal doesn't run their business the way we want, so lets all destroy their merchandise and commit fraud!



    I don't buy cd's or downloads that can't be converted to MP3's, however this isn't going to stop copy protected media. Whether this sort of implementation becomes mainstream or not, some form of protection will be eventually be used.
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